From my Forbes.com blog The New Persuaders:
Let’s just get it over with at the outset and concede that Apple’s just-introduced iPad mini will be a holiday hit, selling millions of units to people who know they can’t go wrong giving a gift of a new Apple product.
And at a starting price of $329, that gift-giving isn’t a budget buster for many people. Let’s face it: Apple has yet another great-selling product on its hands, this time in the palm of ours.
And yet, I wonder if Apple just punted a chance to grind its rivals in smaller tablets, chiefly Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire, into the dust. The Nexus 7 starts at $199, the Kindle Fire even lower at $159. But Google also may release a new Nexus 7 model next week at an Android event, potentially dropping the price of the current low-end model to just $99.
OK, so let’s get something else over with. By all early reports so far, the iPad mini is better than either of those two existing devices. It feels better, it looks better, it’s lighter, it’s thinner, it even still has a noticeably larger screen and especially viewing area than the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire. Not least, it has Apple’s App Store, with apps that fit the tablet form factor rather than plastering smartphone apps onto a bigger screen.
So yeah, millions of people will love it.
But millions of other people will be hearing a lot about the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire, too, and Google and Amazon.com have a huge incentive to advertise the heck out of them. Honestly, if you don’t do a side-by-side comparison, which is tough to do, you may pick up a Nexus 7 or a Kindle Fire and say, “Hey, this looks pretty good. Why do I need to spend an extra $130, or even more?”
That’s why it’s surprising that Apple, whose CEO Tim Cook has talked about not leaving a significant price umbrella for Apple products, did just that with the iPad mini.
Read the complete post at The New Persuaders.
Filed under: Amazon, Android, Apple, apps, consumer electronics, Google, mobile, tablets Tagged: | Amazon.com, Android, Apple, Google, IPad, iPad mini, Kindle Fire, mobile, Nexus 7, tablets, Tim Cook
